American Legion Post 12 making push for new members

By ROBIN SATTLER Hour Staff Writer

Published 2:12 pm, Thursday, November 13, 2014

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Hour photo / Erik Trautmann Post Commander Richard Olson straightens a banner outside the Frank C. Godfrey American Legion Post 12 as they host a 3rd District Post Membership Revitalization Program Thursday. Post members from across the state were on hand to contact prospective and new veterans to join or transfer into the local Posts. The event continues through the Saturday, November 15th from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM each day.

NORWALK — Standing in the main hall of the Frank C. Godfrey American Legion Post 12, Commander Richard Olson paused and reflected on memories of a bygone era.

The building — once a bustling social hub for area veterans — has over time fallen into a slow decline with a dwindling membership and a building in dire need of repair.

“This Post currently has 430 members, it used to have a lot more, but it has come down over the years because of our aging veterans,” said Post 12 Commander Richard Olson. “Years ago, it was much livelier and members were down here every night with their families. Now, we probably have half of the number of members compared to 10 years ago with the largest group being Vietnam era veterans.”

In an effort to revitalize sagging memberships at not only Post 12 but also American Legion Posts throughout Fairfield County, a three-day event geared toward bringing in new members began Thursday and will run through Saturday, Nov. 15.

As of noon, a handful of Post members from around the state were on hand to contact prospective and new veterans to join or transfer members into the local posts.

“Part of the problem is that we have veterans that either join online or through direct mail and they can’t be put into a local post,” said senior membership coordinator Michele Steinmetz from the American Legion National Headquarters. “Our mission is to contact them and transfer them out of a holding post as we like to call it and into a local post.”

By doing so, Steinmetz said she hopes to get 20 veterans transferred into the Post 12 out of roughly 100 transfers throughout the state.

“We sent out 1,700 letters in Fairfield County and so far, we have a stack of transfers that have come through by calling people,” Steinmetz said.

Aside from cold calling veterans, Olson said he hopes the Legion hall can undergo a major revitalization to entice a younger set of veterans to become members.

“They have a different need from the WWII and Vietnam veterans,” Olson said. “They’re not joining as much as I’d like them to, but they also have a different level of activity with school, kids, etc. We would love to have a cyber cafe here for them, but that’s hard to do when you just have a smoky bar.”

Olson said there are also a large number of younger veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and often times “don’t feel as though they belong.”

“Because of that, we’re reaching out to them and letting them know that they do belong here and that we can help them,” Olson said. “We have all kinds of programs to help them.”

A state “Service Officer” will also be on site at the Legion through Saturday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day to assist veterans with medical and benefit issues and to complete paperwork for them.